Ex-con pleads guilty to bank holdup

John Nickerson

Updated 9:20 pm, Monday, January 13, 2014

STAMFORD -- A homeless man who walked into a downtown city bank in September 2012 saying he had two bombs before stealing about $1,200 in cash is slated to be sentenced to seven years in prison when he returns to court in March.

Corey Craig Midgette, 38, whose last known address was in Waterbury, pleaded guilty to a charge of armed robbery before state Superior Court Judge Richard Comerford in Stamford on Monday morning. As part of a plea agreement, he will also serve five years of special parole under the sentencing set for March 10.

He has a prior criminal record that includes convictions for robbery, criminal trespass, forgery, escape and narcotics possession.

Police were called to Citizens Bank at 1 Atlantic Street at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 31, 2012, after a man wearing a Yankees baseball cap walked into the bank and wrote on a savings withdrawal slip and passed it to a female teller.

On the slip was written, "Two bombs need cash," according to his arrest affidavit. The teller passed the robber $1,220, who then walked out of the bank.

Police subsequently went to the nearby Target store to see if the robber had walked by it. There, a man fitting the description of the robber was seen on video walking into the store.

Inside, the man purchased a shirt, sneakers and Levi pants for $122 with a wad of cash from his pocket.

The man, who was later identified as Midgette in part because he had been arrested at Target a little more than a month earlier and accused of shoplifting, used a men's room to change into the new clothing, apparently stuffing his old clothes into a black book bag he had also just purchased.

An officer identified Midgette as the bank robber, and police sent the holdup note to the state forensic laboratory in Middletown, which matched a fingerprint on it to Midgette.

His public defender, Howard Ehring, said Midgette was ill at the time and motivated by serious money problems. It appeared the prosecutors took that into account, he said.

"It was a sad thing with Mr. Midgette. He has some health issues and unable to get a job, he did an incredibly irresponsible thing that I'm sure scared the bank tellers. But he had no weapon, he had no bombs. It was a desperate cry for help and for finances," Ehring said.